To The Moon

The Biden administration has demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners divest their stakes inthe popular video app or face a possible ban in the United States. U.S. officials and legislators have raised fears that TikTok's user data inthe U.S. could be passed on to the Chinese government. Owned by ByteDance, TikTok has more than 100 million U.S. users.

This is the first time that the Biden administration has threatened a potential TikTok ban. President Joe Biden's predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, had tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but was blocked by the courts.

Meta, Snap, Alphabet to benefit

Companies like Meta, Snap & YouTube's parent company Alphabet would benefit if such a ban on TikTok was in place. These digital media companies had a tough time in 2022 as digital advertising spending was cut, impacting their revenues. Social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube have been losing market share to TikTok. 

In 2021, TikTok topped a billion monthly users. An August Pew Research Center survey found that 67% of teens in the U.S. use TikTok, and 16% said they are on it almost constantly. According to Insider Intelligence, TikTok controls 2.3% of the worldwide digital ad market, putting it behind only Google (including YouTube), Facebook (including Instagram), Amazon and Alibaba.

However, lawmakers still have some long way to go before any real ban could be implemented. Assuming this bill gets through the Republican-controlled House, the Democratic majority Senate would have to pass some version of it, which will be a challenge based on the opposition that has already been voiced by some Democrats. If it did pass the Senate, Biden would still need to decide whether to veto it or sign it.

$Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ 

$Snap Inc(SNAP)$ 

$Alphabet(GOOG)$ 

@TigerStars